


adorable

by doctormissy



Series: 9 Days Christmas Writing Challenge [20]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: 9 Days Christmas Writing Challenge, Christmas, Domestic, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Holiday Sweaters, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 07:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13142397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctormissy/pseuds/doctormissy
Summary: Nicky gives Neil ugly cat sweaters as a Christmas present. Sir Fat Cat loves it, Neil and Andrew don't.





	adorable

**Author's Note:**

> hello i know i've never written for this fandom but i hope you'll like this little fic i wrote for a christmas challenge

 

Neil still didn’t know how Nicky had talked him into this. He knew Andrew wasn’t excited to have half the old team in his house. He knew Kevin was standing on the doorstep, furiously knocking on the door and shouting for him to let him in because it was fucking cold outside––but he didn’t know _that_. He hated Christmas. His time with Riko at Castle Evermore had made sure of that.

‘It’s been six years, Neil,’ Nicky had said. Or, ‘We’re family, and family should spend Christmas together.’ Matt added that they always went to his mother with Dan and him, so why couldn’t they spend the holidays at their place once? The cats would love the company, right?

They were cats. They didn’t care. But somehow, he agreed, and convinced Andrew to agree.

Neil swung the door open. Kevin frowned at him. ‘Took you long enough,’ he said. And then he smiled and pulled Neil in for a hug. ‘Merry Christmas, Neil!’ He pushed a box messily wrapped in paper with red-nosed reindeer into Neil’s hands when he pulled away. Something rattled inside. He squeezed past him and entered the warm house. More boxes waited to be given away in a plastic bag swinging in his left hand.

It was snowing outside. There were no people walking by, no cars on the road, just silence and calm and blinking light chains on each window and sometimes on trees. He felt peaceful. He was at home. He was with his family.

He closed the door and joined the Foxes in the living room.

_Nothing will happen. We’re fine._

Neil reminded himself of that every now and then. If he didn’t, all the good in this world might just dissolve into nothing, and he would lose everything all over. Neil Josten didn’t want to.

Least of all he wanted to lose Andrew.

He has embraced the reality of that. But he has never told him so.

Kevin’s presents were in the hands of their receivers now. They chatted away cheerfully, tore the colourful wrapping paper apart, and played with Neil and Andrew’s two cats.

Andrew was the only one who was unwrapping his box in silence. Neil joined him on the sofa, sitting between him and Nicky. He stroked his back lightly.

‘Why didn’t you bring your girlfriend?’ Dan asked Kevin. She was the only girl among them. Kevin gave her a CD the back of which she was studying. Neil didn’t recognise the band.

Kevin took a seat on the armrest next to Nicky. ‘Thea had some business with her family,’ he explained, ‘we’ll see each other tomorrow. Why didn’t you bring Erik?’ He turned to Nicky.

Nicky looked at Matt and Dan instead of at him. ‘Man flu. Tough luck. But at least we can stay home and make sure he gets rid of it,’ he snickered and got up. A pile of presents almost fell out of his hands when he returned. He gave one to everyone. Andrew still seemed uninterested and sipped at his eggnog (laced with a lot of vodka) but accepted it with a curt nod.

Neil hasn’t unwrapped Kevin’s gift yet. He chose to open Nicky’s first; it was soft and asymmetrical, and wrapped more neatly. The paper revealed a blue sweater, he saw as much. When he got rid of all the paper, however, he noticed the sweaters were two and very small.

‘Cat sweaters?’ he raised an eyebrow at Nicky.

Andrew fixed his stare on the two items. ‘Seriously?’

‘Come on, guys. They’re so adorable. They have little cats in Santa hats on them,’ Nicky said enthusiastically. He insisted that it was a good idea.

Dan stirred in Matt’s lap. ‘Put them on your boys,’ she said with a cheeky grin forming on her face. ‘I want to see,’ added Matt. King Fluffkins danced between their legs, and she lifted him up. She cuddled him. ‘Don’t you want to see too?’ she asked the cat.

‘No, we’re not dressing our cats in that,’ Andrew protested. His hands played with his mobile. He was turning it over, doing nothing in particular with it except switching songs whenever he fancied it.

Dan and Nicky didn’t care. He snatched the blue one from Neil and tossed it to her. She got busy with King Fluffkins at once. He meowed loudly. Sir Fat Cat McCatterson better ran to safety.

‘The cats don’t like it,’ Neil pointed out, though no one but Andrew was on his side. Kevin stood up to fetch Sir Fat Cat, who has escaped to the kitchen. All the other presents were forgotten for the moment.

Soon the deed was done. King Fluffkins still sat on Dan’s lap, dressed in his tiny blue sweater with a cat in a Santa hat and white snowflakes all around it, and looked entirely dissatisfied. Sir Fat Cat, however, jumped out of Kevin’s hands and landed on Neil and Andrew, showing off his identical but green sweater. His big eyes stared into theirs. He purred.

‘Isn’t he the cutest thing?’ Nicky swooned. He pulled his mobile out of his jeans’ back pocket. ‘I gotta take a photo for Erik.’ The cat turned his head to him as if he wanted to be photographed.

‘He is the cutest thing,’ agreed Dan, stroking King Fluffkins’ clothed back. She stroked Matt’s right thigh, too. ‘Except for you, of course.’ Whether she said it to her husband or the cat, no one knew.

Kevin took several pictures too. ‘Andrew, admit it. He’s adorable and you know it.’

‘I thought your fashion choices weren’t that tragic,’ he answered. ‘Guess I was wrong.’

‘Neil. Back me up a little,’ Kevin begged. He sat on the armrest again and pocketed his mobile. His hand reached for a cup of eggnog he’s brought from the kitchen alongside the cat.

Sir Fat Cat enjoyed it. He purred with content and looked at them with all the love a lazy cat could have for his family. In its own way, the atrocious sweater he wouldn’t put on a human being wasn’t all the way as atrocious on his cat. He still didn’t approve, but at least it made him smile. ‘He’s adorable.’

‘See, Andrew? It’s five on one. Do the math.’ Nicky stole Sir Fat Cat from them. Andrew continued to sit in silence, but in the end, he threw his arms up in defeat. ‘Fine.’ He took his cup and drank from it. What he said next was muffled by the plastic. ‘Yeah, they’re adorable.’

‘Ha! I heard it!’ Neil laughed at Nicky and smiled at Andrew. He was adorable too.

(Don’t tell him that.)

 


End file.
